A Mentalist Christmas
by Steph-Schell
Summary: Christmas is their happily ever after. Jisbon fluff with a twist of tragedy


**A/N: **The plot bunny literally attacked me just a few hours ago and would not leave, apparently it does not have a concept of in season. So here is my first Mentalist fic. Spell checked but un beta'ed. Feedback is appreciated but not expected. Hope you like and remember I don't own them. Yet.

_this _means memory or past event

* * *

I'm busy typing away at my computer when the man comes in. He's looking a little lost so I go up and ask him what he's looking for. "My name is Kimball Cho," he says and I know what he wants with out being told.

"Come with me," I say. I was partially hoping I could avoid going down to the old offices of the Serious Crimes Division tonight. Even a rookie knows stuff that goes on down there. The place has been haunted for years, by not one but two ghosts. Everyone has seen them. You don't even need to go down to the offices to do it. Sometimes they're walking the halls, sometimes arguing, sometimes they're just standing there talking but they've shown up all over the building. Of course on Christmas Eve there's only one place they'll be.

I remember my first encounter as I lead Kimball Cho to his destination. I saw the man first. He looked so life like I didn't think he was a real ghost. I was turning a corner and there he was. Real as you or me and smiling like the world was a joke that only he got. Those blue eyes nearly took my breath away. I tried to ask what he needed but he didn't say a word. Just kept looking around like he was waiting for someone. That probably should have been my first clue but I was too busy checking him out.

Finally he looked in my direction and flashed me the most brilliant smile I've ever seen before or since. Then he started off down the hall with a polite "Excuse me." I tried to go after him but was distracted by one of my team mates. When I looked back he was gone. When I asked my team leader about it she asked me to describe the man I had seen. As I gave her the description her face continued to get sadder. She directed me to the serious crimes division and told me to talk to their leader, Grace Risby.

As I was going down there I saw the man again but this time he was with a woman, who was clearly unhappy with him for something. I didn't mean to pry but I couldn't help standing there and watching them. They were in the break room and I was on the outside so the conversation was fuzzy. But then you didn't need to hear it to know that the man was being yelled at. Strange thing was he never once stopped smiling as she did it. And once she was done his reply seemed to frustrate the woman more but at the same time you could see her trying to fight a grin.

I remember I wanted to go in and try to get some answers when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and found myself face to face with a redhead. "Do you need something?" she asked me.

"I'm looking for Grace Risby, of the Serious Crimes Division," I said quietly.

"You've found her," she told me with a smile.

"I'm Kristen Tome," I said, "I was told by my team leader to come up here to talk you, but I'm really not sure why."

"Well there must have been some reason."

"All I did was see a man."

The look in her eyes turned from kind to heartbreaking. "Did he have curly blond hair, blue eyes, and a killer smile?" she asked. I nodded warily. "Come with me," she said. She led me into her office and locked the door behind her. Once we were both seated she picked up a framed photo from her desk. She looked at it a moment before turning to me. "Was this the man you saw?"

I was somewhat shocked but on the other hand I was glad I hadn't been imaging things. I assumed she was about to say that it was her husband here to meet her for something. So I told her there could be no doubt that it was him.

She gave a sad nod. "I thought so," she said. "His name is Patrick Jane and he used to be consultant for CBI, Serious Crimes Division. He had already been here for years when I was just a rookie. My name was Van Pelt back then. He was the most charming man I have ever met and that includes my husband. He also died five years ago."

I was too shocked to reply so she kept on going. It turned out that he had started working full time for CBI after his family was killed by a serial killer known as Red John. I told her I remembered reading about the case when I was going through training. She smiled and said most people had. Apparently he had never really gotten over it and lived for vengeance.

She repeated that when she had come on the team as a rookie he had been there for years. Back then the team consisted of herself, Kimball Cho, her now husband Wayne Risby, and their leader Teresa Lisbon. When she showed me a picture of the whole team I recognized Lisbon as the woman I had seen arguing with Jane earlier. When I told her that, she gave me a watery smile.

"That's what they did most of the time," she said, "Lisbon didn't like his methods. Or at least she pretended not to."

She went on to tell me that everyone in the office could tell that Lisbon had a thing for Jane. Most just thought it was the school girl crush every woman got upon meeting him. It certainly would have fit, after the man was charming and handsome. You couldn't find better if you looked for a hundred years.

But their team mates knew differently. They could that for Lisbon at least; it was very, very serious. She wouldn't make a move because she knew he wasn't available, not emotionally anyway. He was still grieving for his family and would be until the killer was caught. So she played the stern boss in public and giggled and dreamed in private waiting for the day when Patrick Jane would have closure and the ability to move on.

Problem was, no one knew how Jane felt. He always wore that charming smiling mask so that no one ever got close enough to understand him. Asking him about it did no good because he was so good at distracting people that by the time you realized he hadn't answered your question, he was either gone or there were more pressing concerns to be taken care of.

I remember she paused before telling me the next part. "They didn't know I was there that night," she said. It had been two days before Valentine's Day and most people had gone home. She had left something in her desk; she couldn't remember what, so she went back for it. She found Jane lying on his customary couch–apparently he slept there most nights and even some days. No one else every used that couch. But there he was and as she thought about going to wake him he turned over, looking towards the offices.

"I thought he had seen me," she told me in a conspiratorial tone, "I was trying to think up some sort of excuse."

Instead he called out to Lisbon. Grace hadn't even noticed her boss coming out of her office but Jane had. She quickly his herself as best she could to watch. Lisbon looked ready to go home but she paused for Jane as she always did. _"What is it?" she asked._

"_Do you want to kiss me right now?" Jane wondered._

_ Lisbon nearly dropped her things in surprise. "Why would you ask me a question like that?" she demanded._

"_Because you've been looking like you want to kiss me for days," he told as though this was a fact that everyone knew. _

"That was how he usually talked," Grace told me, "As though things most people couldn't even understand were normal facts from a school book. It was strange and intriguing at the same time. It made you want to know him more. I guess we thought that if we could understand the man we would understand the tricks and the secrets."

"_And how would you know that I look like I want to kiss you?" Lisbon sighed._

"_Because I know," he said with small smile, "I'm psychic."_

"_No you're not."_

"_No I'm not," he agreed amiably, "But that's not what we're discussing. We're discussing you wanting to kiss me."_

"_No we aren't," she denied, "Because to have discussion I would have to actually be willing to answer your question and I'm not."_

_ She began walking out again when Jane's voice stopped her. "What if I said I wanted to kiss you?"_

_ She turned to look at him. He was on his feet now only a few steps away from her. "Then I would say that you're drunk and I'm going to kill Risby and Cho tomorrow."_

"_I'm not drunk," he pointed out, "And you know that. My eyes are clear as is my speech and I'm making perfect sense."_

_ Now Lisbon let out a laugh. "You never make sense Jane, that wouldn't be any fun for you."_

_ Jane looked like he was considering her words. "This is true," he said with a slightly wider grin, "But you know I'm not drunk."_

"_Then you aren't thinking clearly," Lisbon told him in a patronizing tone, "We both know that—" _

"_We both know what?" he asked. Lisbon flinched back. She had been looking around while she was talking and he had taken that opportunity to close the distance between them. Now there weren't even inches separating them. "I miss my wife," he said, "And I will always miss her. But I've been thinking a lot lately. Mostly about you and me, and I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you."_

_ Lisbon opened her mouth to respond but Jane pressed his fingers to her lips. "Let me finish," he said quietly. "As I said, I think I'm in love with you. But you're right when you think that I'm not ready to move on from my wife and daughter's deaths. I'll only be ready when Red John is brought to justice. Whose justice almost doesn't matter any more. I just wanted you to know that when that day comes I will be ready and I will be asking you out to dinner."_

"_Dinner?" she squeaked._

"_Best restaurant in town," he promised with that mega watt smile. As though that cleared everything up he back to the couch and lay down. _

"I don't know what happened after that," Grace told me. "I ran out of there. I was so afraid of getting caught."

She told me that the next day at work everything was back to normal. She would have wondered if she had dreamed it if it weren't for the fond smile that Jane would sometimes let slip in Lisbon's direction when he thought no one was looking. She wasn't sure if her co workers ever noticed.

Then it happened. They got a lead on the Red John case. It wasn't long after before Jane got a note from Red John himself. It told him to go to a warehouse where they would meet. Jane of course had wanted to rush to the scene. Lisbon pleaded with him to not rush things, to wait for back up, that they needed more people. Jane didn't listen to her. He paid for the mistake with his life.

By the time the rest of the team arrived with SWAT they found Lisbon kneeling on the floor of the warehouse. She was cradling Jane's cold, eviscerated body in her arms and sobbing. There was a red smiley face on the wall above them.

Two days later CBI received a box from Teresa Lisbon. Inside was her badge, gun and resignation letter. Cho ran through her finance reports and found that she had cleared out ever thing she had. The entire team went to her apartment to talk to her but the land lord informed them that she had left yesterday. But he did have letters for them.

The letters were simple. They said that the team shouldn't come looking for her. What she was doing would only get them into trouble. She was going way off the book this time. She would let them know when it was safe to contact her again.

It was another month before they heard anything further. Homicide was called to a motel as close to the middle of nowhere as you could get in southern California. The team was called next. They had found Teresa Lisbon in the bathtub with her wrists slit and directions on where and how find Red John.

Once they followed the directions to an abandoned section of some random small town they were led to a specific apartment building. There was the body of Red John, tortured then killed execution style with two shots to the back of the head, with a signed confession lying next to him. Above him were not one but two smiley faces with a smaller one beneath them.

Risby was the first to see the envelope tucked neatly away in an old mirror frame, far from the murder scene. They all knew it was to keep it as clean as possible. The envelope held another note from Lisbon. This one explained everything. It told of the night that Grace had witnessed and how Jane had promised her that they would have their day. It also told of the day that Jane was murdered, how Lisbon had rushed to the scene when she realized where he was. How she knew just from looking at him when she got there that there would be no saving him this time.

As she cradled him in her arms he told her of his family and how at the end, he hoped Grace was right and he would see them again. She promised him that she would get his vengeance for him. He had touched her cheek, given her that brilliant beautiful smile and died.

The letter went on to say how she had done some very unsavory things to track Red John and she wasn't proud of them. But she wouldn't have changed it if she could. It confessed to torture for his signed confession and to the subsequent murder but spared them the details of what exactly went on. The three faces, it said, were to symbolize Jane and his family as she hoped now they were properly reunited. She knew the moment she had stepped into the warehouse and saw Jane lying on the ground in his blood, her life was over. Everything she had worked for died that day and her own self had gone with it.

The rest of the letter followed with heartfelt sentiments for the team, how proud she was of them, how she was glad to call them friends and that she was sorry to have hurt them in this way. It ended with the statement that she sure Jane was with his family but she hoped he wouldn't mind her company. Because she couldn't stay in this world with out him.

Just as I get through my musing I find myself outside the Serious Crimes Division. The rest of the building has been updated and remolded but this part seems untouched by time. Grace tells me that it's the same as when Lisbon and Jane were alive. She's fought very hard to have them do only what's necessary to keep this place up to code. Anything else and she has a temper that rivals her former boss.

She's still head of the Division, will be until she retires or dies, which ever comes first. Her husband of twelve years, Wayne Risby, retired about a year before I cam on so that would be around fourteen years now. The man I'm leading, Kimball Cho, didn't even last three years after his friends died. He quit and moved to northern California. The only time he comes down to Sacramento is on the anniversary of both Jane and Lisbon's deaths and tonight Christmas Eve.

Grace and her husband are already there of course, just chatting as we enter. She goes over to give Cho a big hug and tell him how happy she is to see him. Her husband shakes his old friend warmly by the hand and leads him in beginning to tell him of their kids. Grace watches them but doesn't follow. Instead she turns back to me. "Would you like to stay with us tonight, Kristen?" she asks.

"Ma'am this is your time," I tell her ducking my head, "I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Nonsense," she tells me, "You're intrigued, admit it. There's no shame in it." I give her a shy nod. "That's why we're all here," she tells me, "Because those two were very intriguing."

"Honey," Risby calls, "It's almost midnight. Time to settle in."

Grace nods and takes my hand to lead me to her old desk. You see, apparently the kiss that Grace had seen wasn't the only one they'd shared. There was just one other. Or at least one other that took place in the office. It was on a night very like this one when the ghosts were first seen, kissing under a door way. Every Christmas they're seen here. That's why the team gathers. To see their friends happy just once more.

Risby sits at his old desk as does Cho but Grace and I just lean against hers. Finally the clock strikes midnight and we all look to the couch. Soon the figure of Patrick Jane _–_clad in his usual suit pants, blue shirt and black vest–is laying there, hands behind his head.

Next we hear the tapping of heels and Teresa Lisbon comes out of her office by passing through the door. Jane looks up at the noise and smiles that wonderful smile. He says something to her but its like listening to a bad radio connection so you don't get all of it. We can tell that he made a teasing comment.

Lisbon makes some sort of unheated chastisement in his direction. The next part comes through clear as a bell.

"_Are you really going to sleep here tonight?" _she asked.

Jane rolls off the couch and shrugs. _"Home is lonely," he says simply and with out much emotion._

"_So instead you're going to sleep in a deserted police station," _Lisbon guesses, _"Because that's so much better."_ She seems to pause for a moment as if making up her mind. _"You're coming home with me," _she states. Jane gives her a curious look. _"Not to have sex or anything,"_ she tells him, _"Just because no one should be alone on Christmas. You can sleep on my couch if it makes you feel better."_

That million dollar smile is back in place like it had never left. Jane makes some sort of comment which has Lisbon rolling her eyes but you can tell he's accepted, even if you can't hear it quite well. Next he offers to escort her to her car; at least I think he does. Lisbon agrees and they begin to walk out with matching smiles.

This is the part that has people trying to catch a glimpse whenever they can. Jane her to the doorway and looks up. He just stands there for a bit with an even wider smile, if that's possible.

"_Words," _Lisbon reminds him with just a touch of heat.

"_We're under the mistletoe," _he tells her pointing up ward. Sometimes you can see the mistletoe but most of the time can't. Tonight it's as clear as if someone put it there this morning.

"_We are,"_ she says in a surprised voice.

"_We shouldn't break tradition," _he comments. That's all the warning she gets before he leans down to kiss her. From what I can see, she's getting the kiss of her life. Finally Jane pulls away. _"Do you remember what I said?" _

Lisbon doesn't need him to clarify this one. She just nods her head. He says something to the equivalent of 'I still mean it', and Lisbon gives him her own million watt smile. Patrick leans down to kiss her again. He straightens, looks back at the team and winks. Then before you can blink they're gone.

I look around to see tears in the eyes of the other three. I reach up and find that my own cheeks are suspiciously wet.

"That's their happy ever after," Grace says in a wet voice.

Risby comes over to hold her. Cho looks away to dry his eyes and then makes a swift exit. I can tell I'm intruding now so I grab my things and make my own way out.

In the parking lot, I hear laughter coming from somewhere. I look around and spot two soft figures in the glare of one of the streetlights. I can't make them out to well but something tells me that it's Jane and Lisbon. It makes me both happy and sad to see them like that. Happy because they're together but sad because they're caught in this loop.

They don't stay long but as they fade away I notice snow beginning to fall. It never snows in California. "Merry Christmas," I whisper to no one in particular.


End file.
